


The Light That You Shine

by SlytherinHermione



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Addictive Behavior, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, For the love of fests, Obsession, QuinTalon's Silly Love Songs Mini-Fest, Songfic, Stalking, kiss from a rose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 04:46:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29711838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SlytherinHermione/pseuds/SlytherinHermione
Summary: Draco was adrift.All around him was an endless, unforgiving ocean, dull and grey in colour.The waves kept crashing in on him. Back and forth, back and forth.Sometimes he felt like he’d been cursed to remain like a graying tower, alone on the sea.This all changed on a random cold winter day and a bright light.Because what followed the light was as unexplainable as the feeling of calm that suddenly enveloped him. He felt a twinge of something that he couldn’t explain. On the other side of the sidewalk stood Hermione Granger, more beautiful than he could remember, locking eyes with him for a second, as if she herself was caught with him inside of this time bubble filled with light and large, fluffy snowflakes.And with a blink of an eye, she walked the other way, as if this was just another Monday. As if she hadn’t just turned Draco's world up-side down. The tumultuous oceans that surrounded his untethered soul were full of waves, but now of a different kind.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Comments: 11
Kudos: 27
Collections: Silly Love Songs





	The Light That You Shine

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [Silly_Love_Songs](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Silly_Love_Songs) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> Kiss From a Rose - Seal
> 
> Once again a big thank you to our wonderful [QuinTalon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuinTalon/pseuds/QuinTalon) for organizing a fest that gets my creative juices flowing!
> 
> I was happy to be able to choose this song, it's always been a beloved piece in my shower concerts haha!😆  
> Now it'll also always be a part of me and this story that came from it... I hope you like it!!💚
> 
> Disclaimer: In this story, Draco and Hermione belong to JK. Rowling. Most places belong to her as well. Hags in bookstores belong to LovesBitsc8. Some lyrics taken from Kiss From A Rose belong to Seal. The rest is me having fun!

Draco was adrift.

  
All around him was an endless, unforgiving ocean, dull and grey in colour.

The waves kept crashing in on him. _Back and forth, back and forth.  
_

Sometimes he felt like he’d been cursed to remain like a greying tower, alone on the sea.

* * *

Draco Malfoy wasn't literally lost in the middle of an ocean. No, he was living a seemingly successful life in Wizarding Britain. He was often seen walking down the streets of Diagon Alley looking like a million Galleons, dressed in the latest, most expensive Wizarding robes. It was often speculated that the robes probably cost more than what Madame Malkin herself made in a month.

No one would've guessed at the tumultuous feeling of being lost and untethered that reigned inside of him.

After years of triumphant redemption, he was everyone’s darling (if the tabloids were to be believed), and it had been years since Draco saw anyone sneer at him. It could’ve been due to the fact that he _himself_ didn’t sneer at anyone either nowadays, but no matter - the results were the same: he was living a life unburdened by guilt, and a heart lightened by societal forgiveness.

No longer living under the heavy weight of his Malfoy legacy.

“ _Purity... Heirs... Cunning... More money... More power... More, more, more…”_

Draco had spent years working on changing the “ _more money",_ into _m_ _ore compassion_ by giving to charities and helping to rebuild their society. He changed “ _more power”_ , into _more charisma_ , showing his true self by leading others into being their best selves. People often spoke of his excellent leadership skills, and his ability to rally everyone behind his cause. He’d been lauded, followed by whispers of, _“Wouldn’t he make such a great Minister of Magic?”_

But not any of this mattered to Draco. Nothing really mattered to him.

Yes, on the outside, the facade he presented to the world was what the world wanted to see, but inside Draco Malfoy was bereft.

* * *

This all changed on a random cold winter day. Draco had gone on his usual tour around Diagon Alley, dressed in a warm robe and dragonhide boots, imbued with warming charms, when it suddenly started to snow. The snowflakes were of the large, fluffy kind that drifted ever so slowly down from the sky, creating an illusion of time _tick… tick… ticking_ slower and slower, until it stopped.

When that feeling washed over him, Draco stopped along with time itself. He stood there on the sidewalk not far from Flourish and Blotts, looking out over the streets, befuddled by the thought that he, as a magical person, still could be struck thinking that _"T_ _his is magic.”_

As he was taking this moment in, suddenly his attention was drawn towards a very bright light that could be seen from around the nearest corner. The light grew closer and closer, and he was too intrigued, too enthralled to do anything else but stare.

Because what followed the light was as unexplainable as the feeling of calm that suddenly enveloped him. He felt a twinge of something that he couldn’t explain.

On the other side of the sidewalk stood Hermione Granger, more beautiful than he could remember, locking eyes with him for a second, as if she herself was caught with him inside of this time bubble filled with light and large, fluffy snowflakes.

And with a blink of an eye, she walked the other way, as if this was just another Monday. As if she hadn’t just turned Draco's world up-side down. The tumultuous oceans that surrounded his untethered soul were once again full of waves, but now of a different kind.

Draco was starting to panic a little. He’d been standing in the same spot for a while, staring, splitting at the seams, he was sure, and people were starting to notice. He couldn’t have that. He couldn’t let this, - _whatever it was,_ this _unexplainable_ thing that just happened, ruin his carefully cultivated persona.

So Draco quickly took his wand out of its holster around his forearm, and disapparated to Malfoy Manor, happy that he hadn’t splinched in his flustered state.

He had to have a drink in his hand as soon as possible. _Blast it all, if he hadn’t freed those house elves he’d already be drunk by now. But no, he had to redeem himself there as well, so now he had paid house-elf keepers coming in during the weekends to clean, and chef-elves that cooked the day’s meals in the morning and then left.  
_

He rushed into his study, poured himself a large glass of Ogden’s finest, and preceded to drink until the light that he’d seen around Hermione Granger no longer burned in his corneas, and the feeling he’d been left with no longer burned in his soul.

* * *

It had been a couple of weeks since Draco had last seen Granger, and each subsequent day had resulted in a growing _itch_. That was the best way he could describe it. It felt like he’d forgotten something important, like a promise that he’d made but lost track of, or a word laying at the tip of his tongue, feeding a frustration in his body.

That's what he felt - frustration.

So really, he couldn’t be blamed for the foolishness he was currently entangled in. That feeling could be blamed! Or rather yet, Hermione Granger should be blamed, since she was the cause of that feeling.

Draco Malfoy had started stalking Hermione Granger.

There was no other way to put it, to make it sound even remotely less creepy. He was creeped out by himself, but he couldn’t help it.

It had started when he’d wanted to confirm that he’d actually seen a strange, soft, beckoning light around Granger, so he’d come up with an excuse to go to the Ministry of Magic, where Hermione worked, just to catch a glimpse of her. He didn’t even have to look for her, since as soon as the lift doors opened to the level she worked at, he was blinded by the light that shone from her office.

That was all the confirmation he had needed, and he’d abruptly taken a step back into the lift, frantically pushing the close button, not caring who else needed to get off the lift.

After a few days of recuperating and building a stalking agenda, here he was now, sitting at a café in Muggle London, watching Granger and the female Weasley, now known as the female Potter, giggle about something.

It felt like they were laughing at him.

He didn’t think that they knew he was there watching them, - he was very confident in his disguise, but not wanting to risk anything, he paid for the check and abruptly left.

If he’d turned around after the glass door had closed, he would’ve seen a pair of calculating brown eyes following his departure. 

* * *

Draco wasn’t a bad person. _Anymore._ But honestly, working with ghastly beasts such as Hags and Vampires, not to mention pesky pests such as Nifflers, was enough to probably make even Hermione Granger secretly shudder. It wasn't that he minded the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, but the only way for him to gain entry and proximity to Granger, no matter his popularity and the Ministry’s wish for him to become the next Minister, was to report _pest problems_ … Maybe Vampires lurking in alleys... Or perhaps a Hag sighting in his favorite bookstore.

It wasn’t gracious, but it did the trick.

He’d been able to not only see her, but also work with her in the Beasts Division. Acknowledging the mysterious light was a very hard task since it made him feel like he was growing an addiction that he couldn’t deny. One thing he’d reluctantly acknowledge was the sheer brilliance that Granger possessed. Working with her was a pleasure, seeing her mind solve problems at lightning speed, and communicate with a talent few seemed to possess. It was like the annoying know-it-all that he knew from school had shed her skin and morphed into a charismatic and powerful person, much like he had.

He realized that he’d compared the quintessential Gryffindor to a skin shedding reptilian, but he’d honestly seen her display more Slytherin traits than the house that the Sorting Hat had put her in.

In between the forced projects at the Ministry, he often followed her to libraries all over town. In his clever disguise that included a combination of glamour charms, notice-me-not perfume procured from Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes, and inconspicuous muggle clothing, he’d followed Hermione all over town on her various adventures. He felt as if he’d seen more of the world in the months that he’d been following her, than his whole blasted life alongside Lucius “Extra Extrovert” Malfoy. Unknowingly, she’d taken him to Muggle libraries, stores, museums, small towns, big cities, and even magical communities he’d never heard of.

Draco was having a blast, but he’d still not come remotely close to gaining an answer as to why he was seeing the light, why just the thought of her made the lonely stormy seas in his mind calm, and why he couldn’t seem to _Stop. Following. Her.  
_

It was just so easy to do as he’d worked out a way to, not only get a sort of a ping when she apparated somewhere, but he could also follow her.

Not long after he’d realized that simply stalking her around the Ministry would probably get him caught by _"_ _The Brightest Witch of Her Age"_ , he had started scouring every book in the vast Malfoy Library. He’d given the elves a couple of days off, lest they wander in on him conducting his research, and accidentally give the Ministry (or Merlin forbid, Granger) a whiff of what he was doing. It had taken him days upon days of minimal sleep, eating only olives, cheese, and stale bread, and definitely not taking baths since they would waste precious research time. But he’d eventually found the intricate spell that he could use.

Even though it was intricate, it was very simple in the execution, once you had a personal belonging (the quill he’d borrowed to sign some papers, but “forgotten” to return), a piece of their person (the eyelash he’d helped her remove from her cheek during the Hag case in that quaint little corner bookstore), and a passion that drove them. That one had stumped him, but he’d eventually taken the gamble that a copy of her S.P.E.W. Bill would work (which it of course had). A couple of runes, pentagrams, pentacles, blood drops, and flowers later, - combined with the three essential ingredients, a few magical words, and his body had started to have a slight buzzing feeling that seemed honed in on Hermione.

To his credit, he had stopped to consider the fact that, on top of the light that he was seeing, he was now _feeling_ her… Even more than before. _Oh well, couldn’t get worse than it already was, right?_

* * *

Towards the end of the second month of following Hermione Granger everywhere, Draco had been extremely close to dying. He’d felt the buzzing early in the morning, which indicated that Hermione was apparating somewhere, and without thinking he’d followed her in the middle of his breakfast. When he arrived he’d immediately been thrown off by extremely strong wards, flying several feet through the air, and landing hard on his back. _Well, that’s what you get for being a creepy creep.  
_

After he’d gained his bearings he’d cast a spell that let him know his surroundings, figuring out that he was on Grimmauld Place, looking at Number Eleven, and Thirteen. _Ah, must be the Potter abode._ He didn’t think much of it, and he apparated home soon after.

Meanwhile, inside Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, a smirk appeared on the pretty face of Hermione Granger as she was glancing out the window on the now empty street. 

* * *

Draco’s months-long stalking had helped him garner more than the title of “Vagabond Parasite”. He’d also garnered a whole slew of information about Hermione, such as where she lived, her favorite colour, number, food, but most importantly the fact that she was very single.

He might have also garnered a slight crush, but who wouldn’t - she was a very beautiful woman on top of being intelligent, and extremely interesting.

He tried to forget about the fact that he was probably a very crazy, obsessive stalker, and if he ever was forced to explain what he was doing, the only explanation he had was, “But I see a light that surrounds her, and that beckons my soul to reach out for her.”

_Sigh…_

He was sitting once again at her favourite café, trying to be covert when a shadow suddenly fell over his table. He looked up into amused brown eyes and startled, scrambling for an explanation to give Hermione as to why he was here. Of course all wit left him when faced with the object of his addiction, obsession… Affection.

Suddenly a thought struck him when he remembered that he was glamoured, “May I help you miss?” he pretended not to know her.

“Cut the crap Draco, I know it’s you,” she said, the amusement spreading from her eyes to her lips, pulling her face into a mischievous smile.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he spluttered.

“It’s been two months, I really thought you would’ve asked me out by now,” she crossed her arms in front of her and leaned towards him as if she had a secret to divulge, “You know, between our work and you constantly following me…” she let her sentence taper out, once again leaning away from him.

“How did you know?” he finally relented with another sigh.

“You’re pretty noticeable Draco, it’s hard to miss a blonde head following you around everywhere,” Hermione pointed out with a huff.

“But I’ve been using glamorous,” he said incredulously, “In fact, I’m under disguise now!” he pointed out, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.

“Oh, I learned to distinguish even the most complicated glamours during the war,” Hermione stated, finally taking the seat across from him. “Now let’s talk about that date you have planned for us,” she said with a smile spreading over her face.

Draco couldn’t help but to smile back as she beamed at him, “Yeah, I think it’s finally time for our date.”

* * *

Draco really thought that after scheduling a date with her, he wouldn’t feel compelled to follow her anymore, but as he was standing across the street from her flat, watching her getting ready for their evening at a fancy restaurant, he felt more questions fill his mind than ever before. He had to ask Hermione why she hadn’t thrown him into Azkaban already if she’d known about the stalking since the beginning. He couldn't shake the feeling that she was hiding something from him. 

* * *

Being the tabloid darling, the Ministry favourite, and a handsome guy, Draco had a lot of experience with going on dates. So when his date with Hermione Granger concluded with a decadent chocolate cake and a shared bottle of wine, he was surprised by the feeling of _firsts_ that he was struck with. He felt full of butterflies and rosy cheeks, not being able to take his eyes off of her. It was as if he’d never been on a date before, and yet, through all of that first date awkwardness, he didn’t want the night to end.

He was standing outside of her door as she said “This is me,” both of them fully knowing that he already knew where she lived.

Hermione leaned towards him, getting up on her toes, slowly reaching up to circle her arms around his neck and pull him towards her. Draco had never wanted anything more in his life. A handshake from Potter, catching the snitch, saving his parents, - it all seemed to pale in comparison to the pull that her lips had.

Still, he managed to pull back, stopping their connection to ensure himself that this was what she really wanted, “Hermione, you know I’m mortified that I keep following you, and I can’t fathom why you’ve agreed to go out with me, let alone hold me in your arms,” Draco cursed himself when she actually pulled back.

“Draco, I know you feel like you’ve been stalking me, but it’s as if you forget that we’ve worked together for months now.” Hermione threw her hands up in the air before she let them fall to her thighs with a frustrated slap. “You work with me throughout the day, make me feel like I can finally be myself around someone, almost as if I’m finally anchored, and then you go home and secretly follow me everywhere.” Hermione said exasperated.

“I can safely say that we’re far beyond going slow.” She crossed her arms and looked at him pointedly, waiting for the meaning behind her words to finally catch up with him.

It took him a minute, but then the synapses finally reached their destination in his brain.

“Oh… _Oh.”_

It took him no time to reach her, uncross her arms, and kiss her as if his very life depended on it.

He could not breathe unless that breath came from her lips.

He would float away if it weren’t for her steady hold.

Somehow she fumbled open the door, dragging Draco along with her lips, her hands roaming all over his body, divesting him of his clothes.

Draco lost all sense of control, pulling off clothes, pushing her tight against him, both moaning when his hard member brushed against her hot centre, only their underwear left between them.

She had somehow navigated them to her bed, pushed him on top with a sense of urgency that they both felt, and wandlessly vanished those last pieces of obstacles.

Wasting no time, she took him in her hand and guided him into her wet core, both feeling as if the world had finally aligned with their coupling.

She started riding him with a passion as he matched each stroke, pushing himself up deeper into her, both of them holding onto each other as if they were being fused together.

As they reached their climax, a blinding light flashed in pulsing intervals before it dimmed as they both came down from their high. 

* * *

Laying in her bed, holding her body tight in his hold, Draco thought that they fit like two puzzle pieces, or like a wizard and his wand: made for each other.

Their shared night of passion was an experience unlike any he’d had before; the feeling of coming together was so euphoric that he thought he’d transcended beyond the veil for a small fraction of time. And he knew she’d felt it too. She had been there with him, right alongside him...

As he was ruminating, Hermione stirred, and Draco couldn’t help but to kiss her. Nuzzling along her clavicle, leaving tiny kisses as he trailed up to the column of her throat, where he could feel her pulse quicken as he licked a path up to her ear, reverently whispering her name, “ _Hermione.”_

“Mm, Draco, don’t stop, it feels so good… You feel so good,” Hermione said breathlessly as he laid himself on top of her and claimed her mouth in a passionate kiss.

“Hermione, I want to go on forever,” he said in the break between his kisses, “but I really think we should talk…”

Pouting, Hermione acquiesced, “Yeah, we should.” She gently pushed him to lay beside her as she sat up and covered herself with the sheet.

As she cleared her throat several times, picking at invisible threads in the surrounding bedding, he sensed that he would have to speak first.

“Um, I guess… I wonder… Have you, um, Merlin this is awkward,” Draco rubbed the back of his head as he sat up too, trying to find the right words. “Have you, by chance, been seeing a light surrounding me?” he finally asked.

He could tell by the way that she stilled, that she knew what he was talking about. What he couldn’t understand was the guilty look on her face.

“Draco,” she said tentatively, avoiding his gaze, but then seeming to hit a resolve as she looked him steady in the eyes.

“We’re soulmates.”

It was as if the world came to a screeching halt. He blinked stupidly a couple of times, before he sputtered out, “Soulmates!?”

“Yes, Draco, we’re soulmates, I’ve done extensive research into this ever since I saw you standing in the snow outside of Flouri- …”

“Hold up,” Draco interrupted her, “You’ve known we were soulmates since _December_?” He asked incredulously, suddenly standing up.

“Hermione, you’ve known all this time, and you didn’t tell me? You’ve just let me walk around feeling like I’ve been losing the plot, accepting that I’m crazy, because _I keep seeing a light around a woman I couldn’t seem to stay away from!?_ ”

He was furious.

“Draco, please, you have to unders- ...”

  
“NO, Hermione, you don’t understand,” he gripped his hair in frustration, finally looking the part of a madman, “I’ve been stalking you… I’ve been obsessed, feeling like another version of myself, because I was committing a fucking crime!”

“What do you think I should’ve done?” Hermione finally cut off his decline into hysteria.

“Draco, look at you now, do you really believe your reaction would've been different had I told you then?” she yelled out.

Seeing that she finally had his attention, she continued in a calmer tone, “You think I don’t know you Draco, but I do… Not only do I know your soul now, as it is one with mine, but I’ve been watching you since I first laid my eyes on you.

“I took an informed decision to not tell you, all based on your past actions, your reactions to situations, and your opinions,” she said. “Even though I’ve been watching you, I still had little less to go on other than those things you showed.”

Hermione looked into his pained eyes and knew that she had to tell him the whole truth.

“Draco, I’ve felt drawn to you from the start, completely obsessed if I’m being honest,” she kneeled up on the bed, scooting towards him. “The compulsions I’ve felt drove me to do research in an almost manic manner, which is saying a lot since it’s _me_ ,” she continued.

“But Draco, _I fell in love with you_ , not because of the bond, but slowly during the ridiculous Niffler hunts and impromptu lunches,” she said with a watery smile. “Since I’m being completely honest, I never really saw through your glamours, rather it was the light that you shine that had me figuring out that you’ve been following me,” she couldn’t help but chuckle as he gave her a knowing look.

“I’m also fairly sure that if you hadn’t been stalking me, I would’ve ended up stalking you. It felt like an addiction I couldn’t deny." Draco couldn't help but smile a little, hearing his own feelings mirrored in her.

“Me loving you is completely unrelated to our soulmate bond.” Hermione wanted him to understand.

“I knew that you’d never accept being anyone's soulmate, let alone mine… After the war, and getting to know you through our work, I know that you value your freedom of choice above all else, and here I was, reading all of these books about soulmates and light, and the feeling of finally being tethered to something… And I kept thinking _he’s mine, but he has no choice, I’m not his choice, he would never choose me...”_ She finally burst into tears with her confession and the heartbreak she felt by knowing that Draco Malfoy would never choose Hermione Granger.

All Draco wanted was to take her into his arms and make everything alright. But her words were stuck in a loop inside his brain. _Did he ever have a choice?_

From the moment he’d seen that light surround her, he’d been hit by a need to see her, to be with her, and seeing it from a new perspective, he could understand that it truly was out of character for him to behave that way. But he _loved_ her!

Was that also a compulsion?

“How does this soulmate bond work between us?” he asked, not knowing if he really wanted the answer.

“I honestly don’t know Draco,” her answer took him by surprise, “Through all my extensive research I’ve found thorough explanations for _what_ it is, but absolutely no mention as to _why._ ” She seemed accepting of this fact, which unnerved Draco. Wasn’t Hermione Granger a know-it-all?

“And you just accept that? Just accept that you’re bound to me for the rest of our lives?”

“Yes! Not only that Draco, but I want more than the rest of our lives!” she exclaimed. “I want for all eternity, because I love you, I _see_ you, and we are two pieces of one whole,” she pleaded with him.

Draco knew exactly what she was talking about, he felt it just as strongly as she did, but in some sort of self-punishment he refused to give in. He felt betrayed by her omission of the truth, for letting him go as far as he did with the stalking. But mostly he felt an ache when he considered that she believed he wouldn’t have chosen her even without the soulmate bond.

He knew it in his bones, by the essence of his being, that he would choose her in every reality.

How did she not know that?

Draco was now faced with two decisions: stay or leave.

Looking into her sorrowful eyes, the answer came clear as day.

He grabbed his clothes, only then realizing that he’d been pacing around the room stark naked, looked at her as if to imprint her on his mind, and disapparated.

* * *

Hermione was sitting at her favourite table, in her favourite café, sipping on the perfect brew, when a man approached her little corner and asked, “Is this seat taken?”

Smiling down at her was Draco, - the man that had knocked on her door all those months ago after he’d popped away from her room, put on his clothes, and decided to woo her properly. Conjuring red roses to give her. Asking her out on a date. Getting kissed senseless by her then and there.

“Why yes, I was saving it for my fiancée” she said as he sat down next to her, giving her a kiss.

If anyone had looked closely enough at the two lovers in that moment, they would have seen a bright light shine through the grey.

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, thank you for reading!! Kudos and comments are appreciated!
> 
> Much love! 💚


End file.
